{"id":1484027,"date":"2022-05-19T08:34:13","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T12:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1484027"},"modified":"2022-05-19T08:34:16","modified_gmt":"2022-05-19T12:34:16","slug":"using-cardio-to-improve-max-strength-muscle-and-endurance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/using-cardio-to-improve-max-strength-muscle-and-endurance\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Cardio to Improve Max Strength, Muscle and Endurance"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fusing-cardio-to-improve-max-strength-muscle-and-endurance%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1484027&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>I know you muscle heads out there are shaking your head.\u00a0 &#8220;What?! Everybody knows that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.muscleandstrength.com\/workouts\/cardio\">cardio<\/a> saps strength&#8230; I mean at best cardio is neutral and you&#8217;re lucky if doesn&#8217;t burn up your muscle and strength gains and leave you looking depleted like an &#8217;80&#8217;s aerobics instructor!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Stay with me my fellow behemoths and junior behemoths who are trying to grow up and one day carry an acceptable amount of muscle.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a famous one-liner World&#8217;s Strongest Man contest winner, Phil Pfister said.\u00a0 He was being interviewed by another World&#8217;s Strongest Man winner, Bill Kazmier about the riggers of long duration strongman events to which Phil quips, &#8220;Everybody needs cardio Kaz.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I too once thought that being the biggest and strongest you can be, required you to not do cardio.\u00a0 To avoid it religiously, along with several other deadly sins.\u00a0 I was wrong and you are too.\u00a0 Here are some of my experiences that changed my thought on this and some reasons why almost everything you hear about cardio is wrong.<\/p>\n<p>I grew up as a faithful powerlifter and football player.\u00a0 Football spring and fall, powerlifting every other available week of the year and even in-season.\u00a0 Squats on Mondays (this is old school \u2013 I realize that Monday\u2019s are now officially bench-day worldwide), bench on Wednesdays, deadlifts on Fridays.\u00a0 Never above five reps, well except calves and crunches and that was limited to one set lest vanity take hold.\u00a0 It worked.\u00a0 I got big and strong!\u00a0 Then the unforgiveable happened \u2013 I began to become an infidel.\u00a0 I began to read.<\/p>\n<p>Learning the very basics of how to train was one of the biggest blessings of my strength career.\u00a0 It set me on the right path, but it gave me this thirst for knowledge about everything strength and performance related and I began to outgrow the style that I was trained in.\u00a0 I began to hear stories of people doing insane feats of strength that didn\u2019t involve squats, benches and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.muscleandstrength.com\/exercises\/deadlifts.html\">deadlifts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"acenter\">\n<p class=\"responsive-embed widescreen\">\n[embedded content]\n<p><strong>Wildman Cardio Warmup<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>People doing all kinds feats with many different implements and even their own bodyweight.\u00a0 Stories of old school supermen who were both insanely strong and in incredible shape.\u00a0 Then I made an even bigger mistake.\u00a0 I watched the original UFC.<\/p>\n<p>So being the semi-sane red-blooded American that I am, I said, \u201cWell shoot, I got to try that!\u201d\u00a0 So I did.\u00a0 I found a local Jiu Jitsu\/MMA place, I was very blessed in that they had pro-fighters who had actually fought in Japan and I had a good athletic background. \u00a0Martial arts as a kid, football up into college, powerlifting with records at the regional, national and world levels and I found out a few things.<\/p>\n<p>I was the strongest guy there and I was real dangerous for about one minute.\u00a0 Then I got real <em>not-dangerous<\/em>.\u00a0 In fact, after the first couple of minutes with some talented fighters I was downright helpless.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t like that.<\/p>\n<p>Other turning points for me were meeting people who had killer cardio and were still big and strong. (Rugby players, heavyweight MMA fighters, even a bodybuilder). Also watching huge monster strength guys whom I knew had health problems.\u00a0 Watching guys who could squat a grand, but quite literally couldn\u2019t walk across the parking lot without being out of breath.\u00a0 I also watched my father suffer from heart disease and diabetes, both of which are preventable if you\u2019re willing to change.<\/p>\n<p>The reading, fighting and experiences changed my ideas on what strength is.\u00a0 Are strength and muscle incredibly important? Yes, that\u2019s why I\u2019m writing the article.\u00a0 But strength comes in so many forms it is mind boggling. \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.muscleandstrength.com\/expert-guides\/strength\">Strength<\/a> isn\u2019t just what you can squat in the gym or how big your arm is.\u00a0 It is those things, but it\u2019s also, can you pick up and carry something awkward and heavy?<\/p>\n<p>Can you manipulate your bodyweight through space efficiently?\u00a0 Do you have enough endurance to save yourself if zombies try to steal your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.muscleandstrength.com\/store\/category\/protein.html\">protein powder<\/a>?\u00a0 Would you survive more than five minutes with a 145lb Jiu Jitsu specialist?\u00a0 Are you going to live past 45 or be one of those idiots with a sticker that reads, \u201cI\u2019ll die young, but it\u2019ll be in a big coffin,\u201d?\u00a0 Really strength is much more than all this, but back to the cardio.<\/p>\n<p>So I decide that if there are dudes who have massive cardio and massive strength and muscle all at the same time, then I\u2019m going to get it too.\u00a0 In fact I\u2019ve become a specialist in combining massive muscle and world class strength and endurance together.\u00a0 I\u2019ve spent the last few years of my career learning and experimenting how to do it.\u00a0 Here are some of the things I found out.<\/p>\n<div class=\"acenter\">\n<p class=\"responsive-embed widescreen\">\n[embedded content]\n<p><strong>Developing Wild Man Cardio<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3> Combining Cardio with Strength Training and Muscle Building<\/h3>\n<h5> 1 \u2013 Cardio doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re going to lose muscle or strength.<\/h5>\n<p>If it does, you\u2019re doing it wrong.\u00a0 Most people go on enthusiastic kicks with cardio, over do it and end up with a temporary loss of strength.<\/p>\n<p>Think about it like this:\u00a0 Your body has a certain amount of adaptive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.muscleandstrength.com\/store\/category\/energy-boosters.html\">energy<\/a>.\u00a0 Push past that \u2013 gains stop.\u00a0 If you\u2019re lifting hard and pushing near the edge of that adaptive energy then throw in a heavy cardio routine and you go over the edge.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not that the cardio makes you weak, it\u2019s that your body doesn\u2019t have enough total energy to recover from what you\u2019re asking of it.\u00a0 You have to make allowances when you\u2019re first starting for your body to adapt.<\/p>\n<h5> 2 \u2013 Top end strength and cardio are reciprocal.<\/h5>\n<p>Here\u2019s what I mean; this may be hard to imagine unless you\u2019ve been under this kind of iron, but it plays out the same even under proportionately smaller numbers.\u00a0 You\u2019re about to try to squat 900 pounds and you\u2019re only going to do one rep.<\/p>\n<p>The intensity of that can burn up your energy to the point that you fail from fatigue even though it\u2019s only one rep and even though your body is actually strong enough to do it.\u00a0 Eventually you get strong enough that you need higher heart strength and output to be able to keep up with your possible strength.<\/p>\n<h5> 3 \u2013 You\u2019ve got to get through the wall.<\/h5>\n<p>Here\u2019s the reciprocal part to number two.\u00a0 When you are very big and strong and this applies to average people too, but when you start doing endurance training it will feel wrong.\u00a0 It will feel like suffering, as though it\u2019s just robbing you of muscle and strength and it\u2019s exhausting you, but push a little and you can get past this.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the bonus; all of that heavy work has actually built a strong heart.\u00a0 Because that heart is stronger, it and your muscles have the potential for great endurance.\u00a0 You simply have to get past the adaptive period and open up the pathways to express it.<\/p>\n<div class=\"acenter\">\n<p class=\"responsive-embed widescreen\">\n[embedded content]\n<p><strong>Wildman Forearms and Grip<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h5> 4 \u2013 You don\u2019t have to do that much of both strength and endurance to actually get them.<\/h5>\n<p>Most people jump on endurance training like it must be done every day.\u00a0 However nobody jumps on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.muscleandstrength.com\/exercises\/squat.html\">barbell squats<\/a> and says, \u201cI\u2019d like to do them to failure every day.\u201d\u00a0 What if your heart and your total systemic recovery are just like recovering from heavy leg day?<\/p>\n<p>They need time between to actually make the adaptations to get stronger and more enduring.\u00a0 More is better in terms of intensity of the workout, but it\u2019s not always better in frequency.\u00a0 Your body needs time to actually build more ability. You don\u2019t necessarily achieve more gains by doing it more often. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.muscleandstrength.com\/store\/category\/recovery.html\">Recovery<\/a> is king.<\/p>\n<h5> 5 \u2013 Cardio helps recovery.<\/h5>\n<p>Everybody ought to be walking.\u00a0 If you\u2019re having trouble just walking around, you really need to do that until your cardio comes around.\u00a0 That is what I call, \u201cbackground cardio,\u201d that you should do very often.<\/p>\n<p>When I talk about cardio in the context of this article I\u2019m talking about hard, real cardio done with a muscular slant.\u00a0 All of which forces significant blood flow.\u00a0 Both creating circulation and moving toxins out.\u00a0 All good.<\/p>\n<p>A muscle with better blood flow will get bigger and stronger.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have good blood flow you\u2019re limiting the growth of your muscles.\u00a0 Also when you\u2019re used to intense endurance moves, heavy strength work actually begins to feel easy.<\/p>\n<p>Your system is actually tuned to the point that you recover faster from set to set as well as workout to workout.\u00a0 Ninety percent of the time, even if you leave a workout feeling smoked, you don\u2019t feel trashed all day or the next day.<\/p>\n<h3> Where&#8217;s the Proof?<\/h3>\n<p>So where\u2019s the proof and what are the secrets to getting this done?\u00a0 Well I\u2019ve already listed athletes who are proof, but I\u2019ll list myself as proof, because really that\u2019s all the proof anybody has.\u00a0 If I\u2019m not willing to make it work for myself, why would I bother telling you about it?<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m going to state my stats not to brag, but to make you understand that what I\u2019m talking about is reality and I actually do the training I\u2019m discussing.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t lab-coat theory, this is real world application.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m 40 years old, 5\u201911\u201d, 285lbs and lifetime drug free.\u00a0 I\u2019m not bodybuilder lean, because frankly I refuse to eat nothing but dry skinless chicken.\u00a0 I like food and I\u2019m a strongman \u2013 sue me. \u00a0At my biggest I was nearly 400lbs.\u00a0 I\u2019ve lost over 100lbs and cut nearly 40 beats a minute off my resting heart rate which is now in the 40\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some examples of my strength and cardio training and how it compares after I got in shape. I have 20\u201d arms, can one-arm push press a 200lb kettlebell (roughly equal to what I could do with a dumbbell when I was 400lbs), and a 150lb bell for 20 reps, which is five reps better than I could do when I was bigger.<\/p>\n<p>I can one arm row a 320lb dumbbell for five reps and a 255lb dumbbell for 20. Both these are significantly better than I could when I was 400lbs. I\u2019d say that qualifies as strong.<\/p>\n<p>How about cardio?\u00a0 Well take this test:\u00a0 Take a 50-55lb dumbbell or kettlebell and do one-arm snatches for as many reps as you can for 10 minutes.\u00a0 You can change hands anytime you like and put the bell down and \u201csoft lock it,\u201d (meaning you don\u2019t have to slam your elbows, locked at the top and hurt yourself).\u00a0 See how many reps you get.\u00a0 Six guys on the planet have broken 300 reps.\u00a0 I did 305 with a 50lb dumbbell.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s another cardio test \u2013 find a weighted vest, preferably 100lbs.\u00a0 If not wrap chain or weight or stray cats around it till it weighs 100lbs. Take a walk.\u00a0 I walked four miles in one hour, non-stop.\u00a0 There are a million tests, pick anyone that suits you.<\/p>\n<div class=\"acenter\">\n<p class=\"responsive-embed widescreen\">\n[embedded content]\n<p><strong>Bud Jeffries &#8211; One Arm Double Clap Pushups<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h3> Training Cardio so it Doesn\u2019t Screw Up your Muscle<\/h3>\n<h5> 1 \u2013 It never hurts to do some background cardio.<\/h5>\n<p>Walking, walking with a weighted vest, bike riding, swimming, just don\u2019t make a big deal out of long slow distance.\u00a0 Other than walking don\u2019t do any of the other ones more than once a week. (Unless you\u2019re specifically training for a distance event).<\/p>\n<h5> 2 \u2013 Keep lifting heavy but keep the volume in check.<\/h5>\n<p>I like to hit squats, deadlifts, rows and presses all once a week, all for one to two max sets after a warm up.\u00a0 Break it up anyway you want.\u00a0 I like to leave an extra day for any other heavy work I might want to engage in like strongman training, stone lifting, steel bending, etc. (You still get to lift heavy every day if you want).<\/p>\n<h5> 3 \u2013 Find something you can do safely that taxes the muscles and cardio at the same time.<\/h5>\n<p>Do two sessions, one very hard short session, one hard but continuous long session.\u00a0 Most people are going to call the short session, \u201cintervals,\u201d but I don\u2019t believe in regular intervals.\u00a0 I\u2019ll elaborate on that in another article.\u00a0 Think five to 15 minutes as hard as you can go.<\/p>\n<p>If you have to break in that time, do so, but just work as hard, fast and non-stop as possible.\u00a0 For the second session think the same, but at a pace and weight you can maintain, still going hard, for 40 minutes.\u00a0 When you start, both of those are going to be one-minute, then catch your breath and go again.<\/p>\n<p>Start slowly.\u00a0 You\u2019re not going to go the full duration of these things the first time.\u00a0 For most people it\u2019ll be easy to start with two exercises alternating them instead of one exercise the entire time which you will eventually go to.\u00a0 (Think starting with kettlebell swings mixed with sprawls or burpees for the hard day and sled drags with pushups or sit ups for the long day.\u00a0 Eventually however you\u2019ll be able to do anyone of the exercises for the duration of the workout).<\/p>\n<p>As you progress you\u2019ll be able to do extended work with no problem.\u00a0 By the way, you\u2019ve heard of all the heavy lifters now doing \u201cGPP,\u201d guess what \u2013 that\u2019s cardio. Don\u2019t over complicate cardio worrying about which energetic system and all that lab-coat terminology \u2013 just do something that gets you breathing super-hard and works your muscles at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>That could be kettlebell or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.muscleandstrength.com\/exercises\/dumbbell\">dumbbell<\/a> swings\/snatches or jerks, sledgehammer swings, weighted vest work, push ups, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.muscleandstrength.com\/exercises\/bodyweight-squat.html\">bodyweight squats<\/a>, sprawls or burpees, heavy bag work, plate, dumbbell or barbell complexes, battling ropes, sleds, prowler, circuits and more.\u00a0 The thing all of these have in common is the real secret to maximizing your strength and cardio at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>They all relatively, explosively force the muscles to act at the same time as the heart.\u00a0 You\u2019re teaching your body to use your muscles and heart at the same time.\u00a0 The body does what it\u2019s taught.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the benefits listed above, the opportunity for you to get strong using this kind of cardio is amazing.\u00a0 It allows you to work all of the muscles and gaps that you might miss as well as areas of strength you never thought of.<\/p>\n<p>When you recover it all flows together for greater max strength, muscle and endurance.\u00a0 Why not have it all?\u00a0 Why not choose to be healthy at the same time?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I know you muscle heads out there are shaking your head.\u00a0 &#8220;What?! Everybody knows that cardio saps strength&#8230; I mean at best cardio is neutral and you&#8217;re lucky if doesn&#8217;t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":505,"featured_media":1484045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1484027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/505"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1484027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1484045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1484027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1484027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1484027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}